UTAGAWA HIROSHIGE (1797-1858)

Along with Kanbara: Evening Snow, this print is among Hiroshige's masterpieces. Here travellers and two porters carrying a client in a kago [traveling chair] are forced to run through a sudden and heavy rainstorm near the town of Shono in Ise Province. Thatched roofs of houses are visible on the right through the diagonal rain. Further adding to the sense of drama are the dark rows of trees bent low by the wind across the background.

For a similar impression in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, accession no. 11.17407, go to:
https://collections.mfa.org/objects/209695/shono-driving-rain-shono-hakuu-from-the-series-fiftyth